[ the barrier came down with a noise best described as architecturally offensive, which kaveh took as a personal success.
this was not, strictly speaking, anything anyone asked him to do. in fact, a non-zero number of people in the City had asked him - politely, firmly, and once with a drawn diagram on the back of a pamphlet with some very strongly worded threats - to stop doing exactly that. but needs must, and the kaveh had found himself in possession of several components that were clearly not meant to coexist but had excellent potential if encouraged to do so. gently, of course. with style, because he wasn’t alhaitham. a power conduit here, a luminescent signage core there. a suspiciously cooperative canister salvaged from a transit terminal because they sure weren’t going to need trains if all this worked out.
the City, as it turned out, was very generous with materials, provided one ignored the implied warnings. or the overt warnings. or just warnings in general. but day five hundred and thirty seven into their entirely non-con stay in this backwater dredge of a city, and kaveh wasn’t particularly interested in warnings anymore.
the fact that something so inherently destructive was going to end as his magnus opus in the city didn’t sit well with him, but sometimes, needs must. for months, kaveh calculated blast radiuses and structural stress, and energy dispersion and collateral damage, and its potential to very efficiently tear past the seven different safeguards the simulation had thought would do something against particularly irate test subjects, as well as thirty percent of a city block that nobody lived in, and, if kaveh had it his way, it would have reached all the way into the next several dimensions, but given what he had to work with, he had to settle for just one. explosions, he had reasoned to alhaitham on day five of no-sleep and a diet of nothing but instant coffee crystals straight from the jar, were inevitable in poorly regulated liminal spaces that nobody wanted to be in, but ugly explosions were a failure of design. this was, from his perspective, absolutely the correct set of priorities. alhaitham had disagreed. alhaitham was, of course, wrong, but he usually was, so that was okay.
anyway, the bomb blew up spectacularly. it blew up in a luminously flattering way. that wasn’t so bad.
This brings our setting back to the resort. It has been no more than a few hours when about fifteen feet from the reception desk something rocks against the wall with months of pent-up rage. Perhaps a rage that could never be fully excised, not even with a bomb, but it is at least briefly cathartic for drywall and wood to burst like a pinata until there’s a gaping hole in the resort that, from the inside, doesn’t seem to lead anywhere at all.
Past the film of scattered dust crosses Alhaitham first, the edge of his cloak held over his nose and mouth as he crosses through the debris. He casts his gaze left first, and then draws a full panorama to the right. It’s bright. It’s (more) modern. It smells less like a stagnant museum preservation of human civilization. Okay, it smells like smoke and that’s probably just from the bomb. (narrator 1’s note: this was because kaveh hadn’t been allowed to add scented powder to the explosive materials, which he was still not particularly pleased about. but, again, needs must.)
He drops the edge of his cloak and crosses his arms before he glances back to the gaping hole. ] It’s no research lab, but you have managed to blow us into a new place. Congratulations.
[ kaveh emerges from beside the pumps, and shakes out his hand as if it had fallen asleep somewhere around the minute seven of bomb detonation, then sniffs, nose wrinkled, as if the fact that they’ve emerged next to a gas station to be extremely offensive. which it was. it probably had hot dogs. that’s not even real food. ]
Thank you. More importantly, did you admire the symmetry of the blast radius? I told you that my calculations would see to it that whatever mystery material the barrier comprised couldn't’ve possibly messed with it. Also, did you catch the gradient? I worked particularly hard on that. I just didn’t know if whatever light wavelengths that existed on the other side would portray it properly, but I suppose wherever this is isn’t so different after all. [ and then, in the exact same breath: ] Oh, no. Where is this? Why are there still buildings with the mirrors on it? Is this merely another section of the city? Was that just a city within a city? There’s such thing as a little too much irony!
[Alhaitham had initially attempted to refocus Kaveh away from the spectacle of the explosion to the direction of it, but it was day five of Kaveh eating instant coffee directly from the jar and in a relationship, you learn what battles to let go of for the safe of harmonious matrimony.]
I was expecting civilization to be in more dire straits given what we learned… [He gives Kaveh a once over and, assured he’s only a bit dusty and nothing more, returns to surveying the area. And the people staring.] There are some new faces. You should ask them your questions.
[Because Princess Alhaitham can’t, nor can the giant hole in the wall.]
Wait - [ kaveh whirls. he jabs a finger into alhaitham’s chest hole, because the wall hole is innocent. ] I was the one who spent all that time putting together that bomb! Shouldn’t there be a division of labour of some sorts? Isn’t that what a relationship is? If I’m doing all the hard work, then what exactly are you here for?
[Alhaitham is stone. He is the uneroded cliff face. His pec is slightly more mutable under Kaveh’s finger. His offering is dry as the dust settling around them:] Moral support.
Oh? Oh, that’s rich. Who in the wide universe would mistake you for being moral or supportive?! I’d have better luck finding a… a two headed shark to hold hands with!
[Please interrupt them, if only for an explanation about the hole in the wall.]
Alhaitham + Kaveh 2 for 1 special
this was not, strictly speaking, anything anyone asked him to do. in fact, a non-zero number of people in the City had asked him - politely, firmly, and once with a drawn diagram on the back of a pamphlet with some very strongly worded threats - to stop doing exactly that. but needs must, and the kaveh had found himself in possession of several components that were clearly not meant to coexist but had excellent potential if encouraged to do so. gently, of course. with style, because he wasn’t alhaitham. a power conduit here, a luminescent signage core there. a suspiciously cooperative canister salvaged from a transit terminal because they sure weren’t going to need trains if all this worked out.
the City, as it turned out, was very generous with materials, provided one ignored the implied warnings. or the overt warnings. or just warnings in general. but day five hundred and thirty seven into their entirely non-con stay in this backwater dredge of a city, and kaveh wasn’t particularly interested in warnings anymore.
the fact that something so inherently destructive was going to end as his magnus opus in the city didn’t sit well with him, but sometimes, needs must. for months, kaveh calculated blast radiuses and structural stress, and energy dispersion and collateral damage, and its potential to very efficiently tear past the seven different safeguards the simulation had thought would do something against particularly irate test subjects, as well as thirty percent of a city block that nobody lived in, and, if kaveh had it his way, it would have reached all the way into the next several dimensions, but given what he had to work with, he had to settle for just one. explosions, he had reasoned to alhaitham on day five of no-sleep and a diet of nothing but instant coffee crystals straight from the jar, were inevitable in poorly regulated liminal spaces that nobody wanted to be in, but ugly explosions were a failure of design. this was, from his perspective, absolutely the correct set of priorities. alhaitham had disagreed. alhaitham was, of course, wrong, but he usually was, so that was okay.
anyway, the bomb blew up spectacularly. it blew up in a luminously flattering way. that wasn’t so bad.
This brings our setting back to the resort. It has been no more than a few hours when about fifteen feet from the reception desk something rocks against the wall with months of pent-up rage. Perhaps a rage that could never be fully excised, not even with a bomb, but it is at least briefly cathartic for drywall and wood to burst like a pinata until there’s a gaping hole in the resort that, from the inside, doesn’t seem to lead anywhere at all.
Past the film of scattered dust crosses Alhaitham first, the edge of his cloak held over his nose and mouth as he crosses through the debris. He casts his gaze left first, and then draws a full panorama to the right. It’s bright. It’s (more) modern. It smells less like a stagnant museum preservation of human civilization. Okay, it smells like smoke and that’s probably just from the bomb. (narrator 1’s note: this was because kaveh hadn’t been allowed to add scented powder to the explosive materials, which he was still not particularly pleased about. but, again, needs must.)
He drops the edge of his cloak and crosses his arms before he glances back to the gaping hole. ] It’s no research lab, but you have managed to blow us into a new place. Congratulations.
[ kaveh emerges from beside the pumps, and shakes out his hand as if it had fallen asleep somewhere around the minute seven of bomb detonation, then sniffs, nose wrinkled, as if the fact that they’ve emerged next to a gas station to be extremely offensive. which it was. it probably had hot dogs. that’s not even real food. ]
Thank you. More importantly, did you admire the symmetry of the blast radius? I told you that my calculations would see to it that whatever mystery material the barrier comprised couldn't’ve possibly messed with it. Also, did you catch the gradient? I worked particularly hard on that. I just didn’t know if whatever light wavelengths that existed on the other side would portray it properly, but I suppose wherever this is isn’t so different after all. [ and then, in the exact same breath: ] Oh, no. Where is this? Why are there still buildings with the mirrors on it? Is this merely another section of the city? Was that just a city within a city? There’s such thing as a little too much irony!
[Alhaitham had initially attempted to refocus Kaveh away from the spectacle of the explosion to the direction of it, but it was day five of Kaveh eating instant coffee directly from the jar and in a relationship, you learn what battles to let go of for the safe of harmonious matrimony.]
I was expecting civilization to be in more dire straits given what we learned… [He gives Kaveh a once over and, assured he’s only a bit dusty and nothing more, returns to surveying the area. And the people staring.] There are some new faces. You should ask them your questions.
[Because Princess Alhaitham can’t, nor can the giant hole in the wall.]
Wait - [ kaveh whirls. he jabs a finger into alhaitham’s chest hole, because the wall hole is innocent. ] I was the one who spent all that time putting together that bomb! Shouldn’t there be a division of labour of some sorts? Isn’t that what a relationship is? If I’m doing all the hard work, then what exactly are you here for?
[Alhaitham is stone. He is the uneroded cliff face. His pec is slightly more mutable under Kaveh’s finger. His offering is dry as the dust settling around them:] Moral support.
Oh? Oh, that’s rich. Who in the wide universe would mistake you for being moral or supportive?! I’d have better luck finding a… a two headed shark to hold hands with!
[Please interrupt them, if only for an explanation about the hole in the wall.]